Ex-Co and Advisory Board

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Mr. Ajith Goonawardene

Ajith Goonawardene was a former National Oarsman and National Coach. He is a product of S. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia.

He coached the National Rowing Team for the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, S. Thomas', College for 21 years continuously. He established the Musaeus College Rowing Team in 2007 with his two daughters who were rowing for the Colombo Rowing Club at the time, the University of Moratuwa teams and the Sri Lanka Air Force Team bringing numerous victories to those teams.

He is an avid photographer and also served as the Prefect of Games and Director Sports at S. Thomas’ College.

Prof. Priyantha Wijayatunga

Prof. Priyantha Wijayatunga is the current head of Portfolio Management Unit for Nepal Resident Mission of Asian Development Bank (ADB) has also served as a Senior Energy Specialist at ADB.

He graduated with First Class Honors from the University of Moratuwa (UoM), specializing in Electrical Engineering and holds a PhD in Power Economics from Imperial College, London which awarded him the prestigious Beit Scientific Research Fellowship in 1988.

In 2001 he became the founder Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) at the University of Moratuwa.

At the time of joining ADB in 2008 he was a Senior Professor of Electrical Engineering at UoM and founder Director General of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka. He also served as the Chairman, South Asia Forum for Infrastructure Regulation and as a Director of the Ceylon Electricity Board.

He rowed for UoM as an undergraduate and was a keen supporter of sports at UoM and was the Chairman, Sports Advisory Board of UoM for many years.

Mr. Chandrishan Perera

Chandrishan Perera is a name synonymous with Sri Lankan Rugby. He was born in Negombo, Sri Lanka. He was educated in UK. He is an Alumni of University of Exeter and University of Warwick in United Kingdom .

Chandrishan captained Sri Lanka in Sevens Rugby leading the team to win the bowl at the Fiji Sevens in 1994. He was an outstanding centre wing for CH & FC and SL, from 1979 to 1994. Chandrishan became famous as a sports commentator; He was once the media manager at Sri Lanka Cricket as well.

He has also held several positions such as National coach and Executive Director of Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union and is presently the Chairman of National Rugby selectors. Chandrishan has also played first class cricket for SSC.

Mr. Julian Bolling

A pioneer in Sri Lankan swimming, Julian Bolling proudly carried the national flag a long way. He is a proud product of Royal College Colombo and later obtained a Marketing Degree from the University of Clarion, Pennsylvania (USA).

Mr. Julian Bolling is the only Sri Lankan player to participate in 3 Olympic Games in 1984, 1988 and 1992. At the age of 17 he captained the overall SriLankan team in SAF games in 1984. He has altogether won 15 gold medals in 4 SAF games. In both 1989 and 1991 SAF games he was awarded as the best ‘Male athlete’.

Rainbow Swimming Academy was founded by Mr. Julian Bolling. He was a key member in starting ‘Swim Lanka’ with the idea of educating swimming to less privileged people. Julian will always be a 'golden legend' in the history of Sri Lanka swimming.

Heminda Jayaweera – President

Heminda co-founded MoraSpirit with DC in 2009. As an undergraduate Heminda was a regular member of rowing team and was a part of inter uni champion teams in 2002 and 2003. Further he led the organizing committee of first Bolgoda Regatta, which resulted in a new paradigm for rowing in Sri Lanka where international standard rowing held in Bolgoda for the first time. He received B.Sc. (Hons) in Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering in 2003 and MBA in Management of Technology in 2007 from University of Moratuwa. Heminda has worked in Studio System Electronics, UK, Axiata Group Berhard, Malaysia and Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka. In addition he has consultancy experience in new product development and management in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Malaysia.

Ranil Jayasuriya - Secretary

Ranil played Hockey for Mora and captained the Mora hockey team. He was the man behind the revival of the Mora Hockey 7s tournament. He worked as an adviser of a Mora Campaign for SLUG 2013 and it concluded with the SLUG overall championship successfully getting into the hands of team Mora. He is involved in several other youth operations as well. He was the Chief Operating Officer of MoraSpirit in 2011, an year that brought so much life to the organization. Ranil currently works at MAS Holdings.

Anantharajah Ananthakumar – Treasurer

Ana was the first head of finance for MoraSpirit in 2011. MoraSpirit had grown vigorously for two years since inception with funding from the founders; Ana was the first person to reach outside for funds as sponsorships and donations. During his electrical engineering degree, Ana was part of the rugby team, and a 4 year colors-man. He also was the Team Manager, who took the initiative to take two sevens’ teams to the international arena. Ana completed the CIMA exams and CFA. He was also one of the Top 10 finalists in the EYLA (Emerging Young Leaders Award) competition. Ana joined Unilever as a Management Trainee in 2011, and worked as the Process Engineer in the Unilever factory. He is currently pursuing his MBA at one of the most prestigious business schools, Kellogg School of Management at North Western University, Illinois

DC Jayasundera

DC is a serial entrepreneur in both for-profit and social venture space. He co-founded Rural Returns Development Organization USA, SL2College (Gte) Ltd, MoraSpirit Initiative, and a few companies. He is a Social Innovation Fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. DC received a B.Sc. in Engineering from University of Moratuwa and a M.S. & "Engineer" in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University, USA. DC also earned an Advanced Diploma in Accountancy from the Charted Institute of Management Accountants, UK.

Nishal Samarasekera

Nishal is a Consultant & Academic with more than 9 years local and international experience in Logistics & Supply Chain Management. He received a BScEng (Honours) degree in Electronic & Telecommunication Engineering from University of Moratuwa and a MEng degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering from North Carolina State University. Nishal was the Captain of the University of Moratuwa Rowing Team in 2005 and played an active role in organizing the Bolgoda Regatta in 2003, 2004 & 2005.

Selvamoorthy Thiagarajah

Selvamoorthy Thiagarajah (Selva) is one of the earliest members of MoraSpirit who stood against the odds to lead the organization as the first Chief Operating Officer of MoraSpirit in 2010. He is an old boy of St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia before joining University of Moratuwa (UoM) in 2006 for his bachelors studies in Electrical Engineering. He was a keen sportsman and captained UoM Rugger team and also lead the Sports Council during his undergraduate years. After graduation he joined British American Tobacco (BAT) as a Management Trainee in 2011. Later he was promoted as Primary Manufacturing Department Manager. He left BAT in 2015 to pursue his MBA at Haas School of Business, UC of Berkeley in California

More than a website, MoraSpirit acts as a social network itself, gathering the university community together, forming a sports culture. Given there was no entity to showcase university sports in general, MoraSpirit focused broadly on recognizing all university sportsmen and women in an unbiased manner. In 2010, MoraSpirit took on the challenge of covering Sri Lanka University Games (SLUG), delivering great results.